The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #104712   Message #2147435
Posted By: synbyn
12-Sep-07 - 12:34 PM
Thread Name: W(h)ither the Folk Festival?
Subject: RE: Wither the Folk Festival?
Do you mean full-on burger-bar, marquee n mainstage, PA to the sky lites'n'firewalkers? In which case, they'll survive, Jim, But not as we know them... In the last couple of months I've been to two little-known but successful festivals- the Travelling Folk Folk'n'Ale in Upper Dicker, Sussex, and the inaugral Romney Marsh festival. Both have what I would recognise as true folk credentials- people come along and sing, sit in the hall or on the grass, add their (rich) harmonies to singarounds, cook their own tea and drink some good beer... now I think that is how the festivals started, and I don't get about much butthink that there are gatherings like this going on all over the country where folk songs are being presented in their true surroundings.. Reynardine is the more haunting for being sung surrounded only by the Sussex night... but that's the countryman in me- there's no money in all that...